ChatGPT wrongly assumed school refusing to submit GCSE coursework

[Bluebell456]

Hi I don't know if anyone has experience of this or could provide any advice. My son's school is convinced he used ChatGPT to do his English Lit coursework, he didn't. He worked incredibly hard on it for weeks.

Various ChatGPT online checker results range from 0% to 12% likelihood that it was used to write his coursework. He is also in the school's academic scholarship programme and has a strong track record in English and Lit his teacher knows he is a high performer in English. However, they are refusing to submit his coursework.

Does anyone know if I have any legal rights as a parent in this situation or does the school just have all the power? The teacher also told my son that if teachers submit GCSE coursework which is of a high standard and there is any suspicion that ChatGPT could have been used they may be at risk of losing their jobs. Does anyone know if this is true? I don't think this point should be prioritised over pupils' GCSE assessments - I also think it is highly inappropriate that a teacher told my son about this. Thank you

If the centre reasonably believe that a candidate is submitting work that is not their own, they have to take action. Failure to do so puts the centre at risk.

HOWEVER, there should be a clear process in place for him - not you - to appeal the decision. He should have been given a copy of the NEA policy.

Many thanks for your reply, do you know if the NEA policy applies to private schools too?

Thankfully I gave up being an Exams Officer before this can of worms appeared. The school (state or Indy) must have an Appeals policy in this situation.

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Coursework_ICC_22-23_FINAL.pdf

Would it be governed by JCQ? GCSE English doesn't have an NEA it must be an IGCSE or does Wales still have NEA?

Why do they suspect ChatGPT? Have they given a reason?

It’s a tough one. Schools are basically told not to submit work that they think is plagiarised or where there has been other malpractice. Basically, if the school detects plagiarism and doesn’t submit then the student loses he mark for that unit. If they submit work and the exam board detects plagiarism or malpractice then the child is DQ’d from the whole qualification. It’s tricky.

The deadline for submitting NEA has already passed for GCSEs and A Levels. Although, like a PP I didn’t think English GCSE had NEA anymore. Can you clarify? Is this a GCSE “equivalent” course?

It depends if the Awarding Body is a JCQ member. So as far as I can see, Cambridge Assessment IGCSE isn’t covered by JCQ regs at all, but IGCSEs from Edexcel (if taken in UK centres) are.

Interesting. I have experience of the Cambridge course before the regs changed. It was good.

If a teacher signed off coursework they believed to be plagiarised, then yes, they could be personally at risk. The school could also be at risk, and it could put everyone's grades at risk.

If your son is generally high performing, then the teachers must have a reason for suspecting chatGTP - is the writing style very different from his normal style? Have they explained exactly why they think this?

The teacher will know his usual style, are you sure he didn't get a bit of help elsewhere and perhaps not mean to copy but not quite know how to change it into his own words?

So, how did this go? I hope it ended well.

Thanks everyone for all your advice. We got it sorted in the end. The school are using Turn It In to check all pupil’s coursework and in my son’s case it had highlighted a few sentences and even random words. There was one whole paragraph also highlighted.

He was given the opportunity to rewrite just the highlighted sections under teacher supervision and this is what happened with most other pupils too. Some pupils who admitted to using AI had to write the whole thing under supervision which was obviously fair enough. Thanks again